What Huma Abedin Has To Say About Hillary Clinton's Marriage

Former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who is also the estranged wife of disgraced U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, has released a memoir that sheds insight into both her personal life and her political life. Abedin most famously served as the former Secretary of State's deputy chief of staff from 2009 to 2013 under the Obama administration. But she also interned for Hillary in the mid-'90s — when Bill Clinton was president, and when he infamously had an affair with another intern, Monica Lewinsky. In fact, a large chunk of her memoir, "Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds," concentrates on her experience as a member of her boss' inner circle at that time.

In a November 1 interview with CBS News, Abedin spoke with anchor Norah O'Donnell about the Clinton-Lewinsky affair — a situation that has not only become only more timely as people question the power dynamics in the relationship, but with the release of the latest season of "American Crime Story," which centers on the 1998 Bill Clinton impeachment scandal. 

So what did Abedin have to say about it all?

In her recent CBS News interview, Huma Abedin expanded upon passages from her book about serving as Hillary Clinton's aide during the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. Abedin expressed feelings of deep empathy and anguish for the then-first lady — "I was sad and angry," she wrote in her book — and also shared her sense of "[being] confused" over Hillary's choice to stay with her husband, Bill Clinton, as both a spouse and a working White House figure. Later, in response to O'Donnell's follow-up on whether Abedin thought the former FLOTUS made the right choice in staying with ex-President Clinton, Abedin's answer was measured but frank: "She made the decision that she thought was right for herself, her family, and her country."

As many familiar with the 2016 scandal involving Anthony Weiner — whom Abedin distanced herself from after he pled guilty to sending explicitly sexual images to a minor in 2017 — the Clinton staffer later recalled how, in a strange parallel, Hillary had shown her grace in the midst of her own political scandal. "I had been informed by a colleague I was about to be let go but given our long relationship, that Hillary needed to fire me herself. And she shocked me — she did not believe it was the right thing to do," Abedin disclosed on-air. Indeed, their support of one another has continued to hold true, with Hillary herself having expressed support for Abedin's memoir before its upcoming publication.